UN fails Myanmar human rights test: US cleric

The main thing this shows us is that we Muslims around the world are proud of Iran and Turkey for standing up- but we have to, the whole Muslim community has to stand up for the rights of other Muslims.”
Abdul Alim Musa, the Imam of Washington’s Masjid al-Islam

A prominent cleric in the US says the UN has failed to restrain the predicament against Muslims in Myanmar by its lack of action against the massacre of the minority group, Press TV reports.
“This problem in Burma… it’s not a concern of the West or its institution it’s not a concern for the rest of the people,” the Imam of Washington’s Masjid al-Islam mosque, Abdul Alim Musa said in an interview with Press TV on Tuesday.
The Imam added that the situation in Myanmar shows that the life and values, the family, the people’s culture and heritage are “not important” to the United Nations “unless it’s wrapped around what’s valuable to the West or oil or gold or some other resource”.
Imam Musa also praised Tehran and Turkey for standing up for the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar who are being oppressed in the Buddhist-majority country.
“The main thing this shows us is that we Muslims around the world are proud of Iran and Turkey for standing up- but we have to, the whole Muslim community has to stand up for the rights of other Muslims,” he added.
The government of Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingyas, who it claims are not natives and classifies them as illegal migrants, although they have lived in the country for generations.
On Friday, Myanmar’s President Thein Sein said that Rohingya Muslims must be expelled from the country and sent to refugee camps run by the United Nations.
The UN says decades of discrimination have left the Rohingyas stateless, with Myanmar implementing restrictions on their movement and withholding land rights, education and public services.
Reports say 650 of nearly one million Rohingya Muslims have been killed as of June 28 during clashes in the western region of Rakhine. This is while 1,200 others are missing and 80,000 more have been displaced.
The UN has described Rohingya Muslims as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.
PG/JR